Replacing an old friend

Don’t you just hate it when something you love to use gets discontinued? You have a happy habit of working or a product you know you can rely on and a company decides it just isn’t worth making any more. I expect that is why we should always look to the ‘classic’. I have never really had the wisdom to buy in bulk. I wish with all my heart that I was one of those people who found a pair of shoes that were ‘so-them’ and comfortable that they bought 3 pairs in different colours. I think I am way to fickle and flaky for that.  However there is one product that I actually had such foresight and bought in bulk. For a long time I have preferred a small notebook for my design notes. These were made my the Japanese company Muji.

They had little dots inside, were spiral bound so I could fold the notebook in half and had a handy pocket where I could stash current ball bands.  I bought 4 of the notebooks just before they discontinued the line. So whilst I have mourned their absence for a while I have been able to replenish my project bag from ‘stock’. I use this notebooks to draw and right up patterns – they are very, very scruffy inside. If you think the code used to write knitting and crochet patterns seem indecipherable  – you should see the level of code I write in these – sometimes I don’t even understand it!

Here you go a before and after…..

I knew the day was coming when I just couldn’t eke out any more paper from my remaining books. A replacement had to be found. It has taken me a while to settle and commit. We are going with the Leuchtturm 1917 Notebook It is not cheap my friends, but for me this is a vital work tool.

The positives include having dotted pages – this appears to matter to me more that I realised. It actually has numbered pages….useful. It might help me index my design work – you never know. It does have a pocket at the back for ball bands and strands of yarn. I hope this will be robust enough to take some wear and tear. Plus I added this very handy pen holder….c’mon! As with the previous design it has to be small enough to fit in all sorts of bags and travel with me everywhere, but the colour really should sing to me from the bottom of a dark and Mary Poppinsesque bag.

We will see how we get on. Do tell me if you have loved and lost a favourite product and if you have an alternative pointers on the notebook front I would love to hear. I am still slightly sitting on the fence before I fully commit.